


Proud (forever and a day)

by WritingYay



Series: 4 am adventures [2]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Anxiety, Brief Aaron, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Four o'clock in the morning club, GCSEs, Gen, Humour, More deep chats, Night before results day, Not understanding new grading, Robert being a good dad, worrying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 12:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11828646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingYay/pseuds/WritingYay
Summary: Robert blinks slowly as his four o'clock in the morning sleep-fuddled brain struggles to catch up. A mental calendar pops up in his head as he scrambles around trying to understand Liv."Oh!" He announces after a few seconds and slaps a hand against his thigh. "Yes, I get you. 24th. Results Day."Liv's mouth automatically turns down into a hard grimace and anxiety lines spring to her face like memory foam.





	Proud (forever and a day)

"Two months and four days." 

Robert, credit where credit is due, manages to save his scalding hot tea whilst jumping out of his skin with fright. There's a 68% chance his heart actually stopped but hey, none of it spilt on the expensive marble flooring he'd spent weeks convincing Aaron to buy.

"Bloody hell Olivia!" He hisses and quickly places his mug onto the safety of the kitchen table to clasp his hand over his chest; some poor attempt to calm down the erratic pulse jumping wildly from beneath his skin. "You gave me a heart attack!" 

Liv just rolls her eyes and steps out of the shadows clouding the bottom of the stairs. She had the decency to look slightly sheepish though as she pulls out a kitchen chair to curl up into whilst Rob shot her daggers from his seat.

"Sorry. Didn't just want to appear though, y'know? That would've scared you more, if I just appeared next to you like a poltergeist while you fantasied about my brother's arse." 

Robert frowns with disgust and found that his hands had stopped shaking enough to pick up his sweetened tea again. He regards his sort-of-stepdaughter carefully and blows the steam radiating from the hot liquid.

"What are you doing up at this time?" 

With a clear hesitation, Liv shifts in her chair to pull her knees up further to her chin in a protective gesture. The couple had worked hard over the last few years to bulldoze the teenager's barricades but a stubborn few still remained.

"Couldn't sleep." She mumbles into her pyjama bottoms. It's no use asking Robert why he was awake- she knew what answer she'd get. Some sarcastic remark about his genius brain whirring constantly or being too amazing to sleep. There's still a haunted glassiness to Robert's eyes though, just like in hers. Liv doesn't comment on it, doesn't probe. Never has. Probably never will.

"No?" Robert takes a tentative sip of the tea. Well, he has no right to call it tea really. It's just sugar and half a cow dissolved with less water than Satan has in Hell. GoodHousewives said it would help him get back to sleep, so...

Liv sighs, long and hard. Her attention turns back to scraping a fingernail across her pyjamas again; the harsh scratching of nail against material sending shivers down Robert's back.

"It will be two months and four days since I took my last exam. Tomorrow." 

Robert blinks slowly as his four o'clock in the morning sleep-fuddled brain struggles to catch up. A mental calendar pops up in his head as he scrambles around trying to understand Liv. 

"Oh!" He announces after a few seconds and slaps a hand against his thigh. "Yes, I get you. 24th. Results Day." 

Liv's mouth automatically turns down into a hard grimace and anxiety lines spring to her face like memory foam. 

"I'm shitting myself Rob." 

In all honesty, it's not something Robert expects. It's a miracle Liv even attended any of her exams, let alone sat through them and tried. He knew she wanted to go to art school but didn't really understand how many qualifications she needed to get there. After all, Aaron took care of all the school stuff, being her actual brother and all. She hadn't mentioned it since then, not once during the summer break she was experiencing that just seemed to drag on and on into the sunset. Last night, he noticed Liv had been jittery but just put it down to being, well... Liv?

"You'll be fine." He soothes with a firm nod and puts down his tea to raise an arm in an open invitation. A flicker of relief washes through Liv's eyes before she scrapes her chair next to his and burrows her cold little body into the warmth of his chest.

She huffs into his armpit. "I'm still scared." 

Robert presses his mouth into the crown of Liv's head in an attempt to comfort her. It makes Liv wriggle in his hold but she stills when he presses a kiss to her temple instead.

"What subject are you most worried about?" 

"Maths." She replies automatically; hard anxious lines set deep into her forehead. "Maths and History, I guess. Think the others will be fine..." 

"History?" He asks absentmindedly and unwinds a loop of hair tangled around her ear. 

"The Crime and Punishment paper was sent to us from Satan. The Germany paper was a gift from the gods and the Protest paper was alright. Hopefully the good will cancel out the bad and it will be alright overall." 

"Correct mindset." Robert retorts and shakes his dodgy knee of cramp. "It will be fine, Liv. You worked as hard as you could and to be honest, we'll be proud of you whatever you get considering all of the crap you've had to deal with this past year." Surprisingly, a yawn escapes him and he raises his eyebrows- not expecting the sweet tea to do anything. "You still set on art school?" 

Liv just nods. "I still need 5 A*-C to get in though, including Maths, English and Art." 

Robert tilts his head back. "What's the pass mark in that new number thing?" 

"A 5 is a good pass." Liv answers, a touch of fatigue fraying the edges of her voice. "But because we are the first year they're accepting a 4." 

"Just for English and Maths?" 

"For our year. More subjects will be number graded next year though." 

With a snort, Robert rights himself and runs a hand through his hair. "Ridiculous. No employers are gonna understand it." He didn't, and it frustrated him.

"It's not the employers we're worried about at the moment." She reminds him. "College and Uni people need to get it first." 

Not wanting to dwell any longer on the government and their inexplainable changes, Robert flaps his hand at her with a unconvincingly "anyways".

"You just need these grades to get into your next step and then nobody will ask for them again. Trust me, as somebody who has been there and done that, I haven't once been asked for my GCSE grades in the big wide world. The only people that care about them are the teachers because it makes them look either good or awful and helps the school to climb a few rungs of the average pass percentage ladder to impress other schools." 

There's a beat as Liv twists round to look at him with an amused smile dancing on her lips.

"Passionate?" 

"Well." His cheeks flush. "You're a brilliant girl Liv and you can't let yourself be represented by a few meaningless letters and a few numbers thrown in for good measure." 

Liv stifles a laugh and reaches up to pat his cheek condescendingly. "Aw." 

Suddenly, the landing light flicks on and an exhausted voice from the top of the stairs floats down. "For god's sake, you two, again?" 

"Go back to bed." Robert calls softly and lightly flicks Liv when she rolls her eyes. "We're coming up now." 

Aaron doesn't descend the stairs and from where Robert's sat he can see his husband's shadow sluggishly leant against the bannister. "Okay, hurry up. Just to let you know, these chats at this ungodly hour are giving me grey hairs." 

"We're just talking!" Liv splutters. "I'm not holding him hostage down here!" 

Aaron's figure flips her off before the light flicks off again and heavy footsteps tread back to his room. Liv grunts as she removes herself from Robert's hold and holds her tongue when at least five joints of Robert's pop when he too stands up.

"You." He points at Liv. "Straight up. Try and get a few more hours kip, yeah? I'm just going to wash this mug up, okay?" 

She doesn't argue, just waves at him and goes to climb the stairs, her brilliance shining behind her in bright rays of Midas gold.

A small smile escapes Robert as he swills out the mug and leaves it on the draining board, reminding himself to leave a good review on the GoodHousewives website in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> A massive well done to our lovely A-level friends for doing so well!
> 
> It's our turn next people! GCSE results day is on the 24th and I'll be honest, I am so, so scared.
> 
> Deep in my heart I know I've done well but my brain keeps giving me doubt! Ahhhhh! I just want them now. Hope you enjoyed this cute little fic before the weekend.
> 
> Good luck to all of my other GCSE guys and gals waiting for results, I'm sure we will be fine!
> 
> WritingYay x


End file.
